I always hated the first week in December. That was when Ma would march me across the city to a Sale-of-Work in the Round Room of the Mansion House. The place would be crammed with stalls – book stalls, tea stalls, bottle stalls and stalls raffling lopsided Christmas cakes. There’d also be a second-hand clothes Read more […]

Nowadays I take the warmth of my cosy bungalow for granted. But, when the boiler breaks down, I recall wartime winters. My winter’s tale also takes in two beaches in summer. June 2, 1940. My father was killed at Dunkirk, helping his men into the rescue boats. My mother was left a widow with a Read more […]

In the days before Christmas the weather turned very cold and people said it would surely snow. Demand for coal, turf and blocks placed considerable pressure on my uncle’s yard. He ran the undertaking on the labour of his three sons, all big strong young fellows who were learning the rudiments of the family business. Read more […]

In the country town, where she had lived all her life, Connie’s only route to her sister’s flat was along Wash House Terrace, past the home of her former school-friend, Elsie Diggle. Once, during a heatwave, she had removed her shoes, to creep past unnoticed, but that was impossible on this damp November day. Coming Read more […]

The snow reflects moon-silver, softening the Norfolk landscape, and the wind carries scraps of carols on its wings. Tom shakes himself to clear snowflakes from his snood, his wattle flapping. Tom’s a bigger turkey than me. He teases me about my ‘superstitious nonsense’, but I have this nagging feeling. Two children walked past yesterday and Read more […]

Henry Hudson was born in Dublin in 1953. He worked in the power industry for thirty years before attending Trinity College Dublin as a mature student where he took a BA in Drama Studies and English. He recently retired for the Canadian Embassy in Dublin where he served eleven years as Property and Services Manager. Read more […]

John Crompton was born on the Isle of Wight, and raised in Hampshire, Dorset and Kent. He worked as an Educational Sergeant in the National Service before completing his university studies in English and Education. He then worked as a teacher, lecturer and tutor in English, Drama and Education in various schools, colleges and universities. Read more […]

Frank E Lee started writing when he was given a pen and notebook for Christmas. Over many years he has written short stories, plays and non-fiction, but has always struggled to be published – so he takes consolation in saying that he writes for himself.   Q: Do you have a lucky writing talisman? If Read more […]

Tim Dadswell was born in Bournemouth, Dorset, growing up in nearby Christchurch. He gained a BA in English Literature from Aberystwyth University in 1984. For thirty years, he worked in a variety of civil service posts in London before moving to Norfolk. After he retired, encouraged by friends with whom he had corresponded, he took Read more […]

Niki Baker lives in Oxfordshire and divides her time – sometimes with a reasonable degree of success – between pursuing her career as an author, editing her partner’s work, running her own business, and backpacking around places that people have vaguely heard of but might struggle to find in an atlas. Writing has always been Read more […]